Who the hell is: Maundrie Fox?

Maundrie Fox is Pittsburgh native producer and multi-instrumentalist Eric Anderson. It’s an MPC mix of sampled vocals, keyboards, and clattering beats. I like to describe it as “bedroom beat.”

What is your motivation?

Before any other instrument I played the drums. Because of that I am always most invested in the rhythmic quality of music. If I’m listening to something and I think the beat is unimaginative and the sample or the production doesn’t have much character then I’m going to be really turned off. So maybe with that being my focus, I also wanted to make something really melodic / euphoric that incorporated a lot of vocal samples. Ultimately though, I end up obsessing over rhythm tracks.

The vocal samples I use are a mix of my own (auto tuned and glitchified), and samples from other places. At the beginning I settled on the idea of not using any intelligible samples. I would record vocal parts and end up editing and rearranging them so much much that it just turned into syllables of nonsense… and I really liked that. I didn’t want the vocals to carry any meaning. It would have added another dimension to the project and that’s not what I wanted it to be. I wanted the name of the project to reflect the kind of aimlessness and wandering of the voices so it became Maundrie Fox, from the word ‘to maunder’, which is essentially to talk or act vaguely or aimlessly. Also foxes are neat.

Who has influenced your sound the most?

A couple years ago a friend of mine turned me on to J Dilla’s Donuts. It’s a full length of absolutely amazing instrumentals. At the time I had not heard anything like it. I had always been a fan of clever hip hop production but for me this was on a different level. It made me really want to do something that was sample based. I kind of sat on that idea for a while as I worked on other projects but I finally got down to working on it last fall. I don’t expect anyone would listen to this record and make an association with Dilla, but I definitely had some of that influence in the back of my mind as a point of reference for how I wanted stuff to come together.

I guess I could say it really influenced my process. What I do mostly is record myself playing a guitar or a keyboard or a beat I made, then tear it apart completely and build something from the pieces. And the same with vocals, as I’ve mentioned. It’s a really limitless and fun process and resulting track can have a really spontaneous and unsettling quality to it.

You are part of the Super Color Super collective – can you tell us some more about what that is?

We are a promotion/booking/art organization dedicated to the most progressive and ecstatic live artists. Ours is a DIY tour circuit among several Korean cities, run by dedicated fans and musicians. By booking artists throughout the Asia region, we bring greater exposure to the artists and reduce overall expenses and ticket price for fans and bands. In pushing to build a more exciting and sustainable creative scene in Korea, we strive to draw awareness and of Korean artists aboard. We also commit ourselves to generating our own forward-looking, creative projects within our collective.

I am currently living in South Korea. Super Color Super is a small company (two full time staff and many volunteers) based in Seoul. As a booking operation, SCS is opening Korea to foreign artists and promoting local bands, aiming to create the demand for a better scene. As an art collective, SCS makes some really awesome live events like Super Sketch, featured by Vice magazine, for visual artists to work together with musicians.

Is there one song that you’d really like to give the Maundrie Fox makeover to – if so, what is it?

Definitely been thinking about this recently. That song would be “Whiff of Father” by Pregnant. One of the most eerily beautiful songs I’ve heard in a while.

Name 3 pieces of music always on your iPod?

3 that I wouldn’t hesitate to return to on a rainy day:

DNTEL – Life is Full of Possibilities

Aloha – Here Comes Everyone

Joanna Newsom – Ys

What are your plans and hopes for 2012?

I am right now doing my best to self promote and circulate this record. I just put a very solid 7 months into this release and I’m thinking the best thing to do is allow a little time before I start on anything else. I want the following release to be more mature, and not more of the same. So I will spend some time thinking on it and experimenting I guess. I’m leaving Korea in September to hang out in South America for a bit with my girlfriend before we relocate to Brooklyn. In the mean time I will be playing as many shows as I can, hopefully I can do one or two in Japan.

Sum up Maundrie Fox in a sentence.

For better or worse I don’t know: I am not content to give you a groove or ambience to slip into, I really want the music to have an emotional impact.

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About Laurence Smith

I advise artists & Managers on all aspects of music business strategy. I provide web, graphic design and social media via my company Smeaks and I am a partner at 360 Degree Music. If you need help in any of these areas or have some questions please do contact me.